@c30c60 Many women learn at an early age that it's better not to attract attention outdoors - claiming your space on the road can go against years of ingrained learning.
Oh yes. Men Shouting Obscenities At You From Cars: not just a cyling experience.
That article is better than I hoped it would be (I have been disappointed in the past...) [H]ow do you find your way in a world that cannot be mastered? How do you live a life in which all of us must eventually surrender and come to terms? is a pretty key question for everyone, once you realise that yes, you too are going to get old and sick one day (if you're lucky!)
I've been pondering for a while on how cycling has been framed by some as a means of demonstrating resistance to self-inflicted pain and of 'conquering' piles of rock that couldn't care less about being conquered. Of going further and faster than some notional or real rival and of risking all for an armour-plated breakneck dash on camera.
Higher, colder, faster, stronger? Not just/only cycling: the present fetish for Extreme Challenges (and every year a new one to beat or do backwards) seems to be a 21st century response to the lack of new places to act out the explorer/discoverer's triumph (or at least attempt). And while women do it too, the history of that concept is pretty inextricable from cultural ideas of conquering & masculinity, especially in western culture.
And maybe CCE is ready for bell hooks after all?
"The first act of violence that patriarchy demands of males is not violence toward women. Instead patriarchy demands of all males that they engage in acts of psychic self-mutilation, that they kill off the emotional parts of themselves. If an individual is not successful in emotionally crippling himself, he can count on patriarchal men to enact rituals of power that will assault his self-esteem." The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love (2004)
...I'm now resisting the urge to follow this with a quote from Madonna's What It Feels Like For A Girl.
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